Equity launches network of local councillors to support arts and entertainment at Green Party conference
The launch was attended by dozens of councillors
Performing arts and entertainment trade union Equity has launched a new network of local councillors to support the arts and entertainment sectors. The union launched the network at the Green Party’s autumn conference in Brighton.
Equity says that “local government has a vital role to play in sustaining creative communities”, and that “local authority funding for arts and culture across Britain has fallen by 55 per cent since 2010”.
Speaking at the launch, which was attended by dozens of Greens in local government, including the elected mayor of Lewisham Liam Shrivastava and the mayor of Lambeth Paul Valentine, Equity’s general secretary Paul W Fleming said: “We have faced the same struggles as every other part of the economy over the last 15 years. We see local authorities in particular having been cut and cut and cut, and arts and culture being very much [at the] front of the firing line.”
He continued by highlighting the impact this has had on his union’s members, telling the event: “We’ve seen a 40 per cent reduction in the amount of work in subsidised theatre since 2017 – an extraordinary plummet in those opportunities to work – but also in the pay they receive in an incredibly precarious, overwhelmingly freelance workforce.”
Fleming would go on to say that Equity was launching the councillors network in order to “identify where we’ve got critical masses of support to keep venues open, to give subsidy, and to ensure that our members can have a more stable and productive working life.”
The launch was also addressed by one of the Green Party’s deputy leaders Rachel Millward.
She told the meeting: “There’s something intrinsic about creativity as being part of humanity that we need to really keep centred all the time”, before adding: “Let’s keep centring arts and culture. I think it’s part of our critical infrastructure, part of what’s important to communities.”
Millward would go on to say to Equity: “Thanks so much for setting up this network. It’s great for us always to learn from each other as councillors to think how can we try to save our arts spaces”.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: MrsEds – Creative Commons
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